Suicidal Intent Can Be Identified With 3 Important Questions

If not, you’re certainly not alone. Most people struggle to correctly identify the intensity of someone’s suicidal thoughts and intent. It isn’t easy to figure this out because humans are so complex.

This article will discuss 3 important questions you can ask someone who may be contemplating ending their own life.

When I see parents in my office for the first time I ask them to provide me with a “list” of behaviors of their child or teen that caused them to think their child wanted to kill themselves. When parents do this I often find they struggle to come up with behaviors to share. One reason for this is because every child is different and depending on what has happened in school or among peers for that day, alarming behaviors may cease temporarily.

As a result, it is important that we become knowledgeable about the signs and symptoms that someone is exploring and contemplating suicide. Most people struggle with where to start and aren’t comfortable bringing the topic up. No matter how close you may feel to the person possibly considering suicide, the topic is daunting.

In the video below, I discuss the 3 most important questions you should ask someone who you suspect may be considering suicide:

Are you thinking about suicide?

How often do you think about it? On a scale from 1-10 (10 = worse) how intense are your thoughts?

Do you have a plan or know what you would do?

When I ask clients why they are considering suicide I often notice 3 major reasons:

Existential crisis: Having questions about what this life is all about. A lot of “why” questions.

Religious and philosophical questioning: Wondering if there is a God and if so, why is pain and suffering permitted.

Inability to master their environment or the things in their lives that make them feel helpless or hopeless.

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My Mission

I founded and designed AnchoredInKnowledge.com in 2009. I knew that I wanted to help people learn what they didn’t know but didn’t know exactly how. After graduate school and landing an internship in a teaching hospital, I updated this website with the intention of marketing my services to only children and adolescents.

Over the past 10 years of consulting with parents, families, and caregivers and treating suffering young people internationally, I realized a strong need for navigation through the muddy waters of the mental health system. During the same time I became certified in trauma therapy. This is when I developed Anchored Child & Family Counseling.

Through the counseling relationship I strive to walk with my clients through tough times, help them explore what their challenges mean to them, and motivate them to find the faith, purpose, and peace to survive.

I am a licensed and Board certified mental health therapist working with psychological trauma, self-harm, and suicidal teens including angry, oppositional, or anxious and depressed youths.

When I’m not working with kids I am helping confused and stressed parents, families, and caregivers navigate relationships, grief, loss, and the mental health system.

I bring both personal and professional experience with challenges of living and I combine these things in my work.

I hope this practice serves as a starting point and resource for you.

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